Keeping safe from Covid-19 was among the challenges of schoolchildren and teachers at the resumption of face-to-face learning this month. Nonetheless, students bravely faced it with a lot of precaution.
There was another challenge that students of some local schools took without any worry. When teachers dared pupils to attend class without using a school bag on "No Bag Day," students gamely went for it with a lot of creativity.
Photos of students carrying their books, notebooks, and other school items in unconventional ways went viral on Facebook and spread cheers online. One netizen compiled "No Bag Day" social media posts showing students from different grade and high schools bringing to class a microwave oven, wheel barrow, shopping basket, box coffin, a box with handle and holes for fighting cocks, beer case, egg trays tied together, ice box, drill gun case, laundry basket, and gallon-sized water container.
From the Facebook page of Mount Olive Laymen's Academy in Purok 4, Mt. Olive, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur, a "No Bag Day" post shows a grade 11 pupil pulling the kind of wheeled suitcase commonly used by travelers.
At St. Joseph Academy in Sariaya, Quezon, some students carried their things in a bird cage, plastic grocery bag, cooking pot, paint bucket and pillow case. A student of Bungro Elementary School in Cabugao Ilocos Sur used a big pot as his "bag."
In Sta. Monica National High School in Hagonoy, Bulacan, 11th and 12th graders showed up in class with a rolling dumpster, ice box, crib, baby stroller, water jug and a plastic drawer.
Students of Dipaculao National High School in Dipaculao, Aurora Province used a washing machine as backpack, large metal basins tied together, a nylon folding bed, pet cage, oven toaster, biscuit can, bike rim and water pail.
Some of the most creative "school bags" were a desktop computer case and electric fan grills tied together.
The most unusual albeit controversial bag was one brought to class by Alexander Troy Mariano of Juan R. Liwag Memorial High School in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija.
A Facebook post of Publiko indicates mixed reactions on the small coffin but nevertheless amused and impressed Mariano's teacher who reportedly gave the student a cash prize of P50 for his ingenuity.
According to the post, Mariano's grandmother, who owns a funeral shop, lent him the casket for the "No Bag Day" challenge.
